Gene Simmons is stepping up his controversial remarks regarding the induction of rap musicians into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as per UCR. The Kiss star voiced his displeasure about Iron Maiden being passed over for induction in favor of hip-hop artists like Grandmaster Flash during an appearance on the February 7 edition of the LegendsNLeaders podcast.
Ice Cube and I had a back and forth. He’s a bright guy and I respect what he’s done. It’s not my music. I don’t come from the ghetto. It doesn’t speak my language, and I said in print many times hip-hop does not belong in the rock and roll hall of fame nor does opera symphony orchestras.
A wave of outrage was sparked by his remarks, especially the one regarding the ghetto that appeared to have been removed from the original YouTube video at 38:10. Simmons has already been in this situation, most notably following Prince‘s death in 2016 and again following the loss of his longtime bandmate Ace Frehley in 2025. Although he finally apologized in both of those instances, he is so far refusing to back down this time.
I stand by my words. Let’s cut to the chase. The word ‘ghetto,’ it originated with Jews. It was borrowed by African-Americans in particular and respectfully, not in a bad way.
Additionally, he adamantly denied that his use of the word in this specific context had any racist overtones.
Ghetto is a Jewish term … How could you be [racist], when rock is Black music? It’s just a different Black music than hip-hop, which is also Black music. Rock ‘n’ roll owes everything to Black music, statement of fact, period. All the major forms of American music owe their roots to Black music.
Furthermore, why does Simmons give a damn about who is inducted into and expelled from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? They don’t seem to get along.
It’s become a joke. We’ve been thinking about it and the answer is simply, ‘We’ll just buy it and fire everybody.
Kiss was controversially inducted into the Rock Hall in 2019. The band’s four founding members were the only ones recognized, leaving out (at the very least) Bruce Kulick and Eric Carr, who each contributed to several platinum albums and popular tours over their ten-year tenures with the group. Take Metallica, for instance, as an example. Robert Trujillo was honored alongside his colleagues in 2009, even though he had only contributed to one studio album at the time of their induction. Kiss co-founder Paul Stanley does not have a positive opinion of the induction, stating that he only accepted it as a token of appreciation to the band’s supporters.
They treated us like crap, even that night. We had trouble – how about this? – getting into the arena. We had no idea about the rundown of the show or when we were getting on stage. It was disgraceful what they did, but we won.